Imported content removal tool

[denise]

For people who got bitten by LJ's bug that was causing duplicate content in your account after importing content from LJ, we've finished the tool that will help you clean up your account without having to delete each individual post or comment.

This tool will remove all imported content from your account, not just duplicate imported content. (Basically, there's no way for us to tell which version of a post or comment is the 'original' and which is the duplicate, so we need to remove them both and let you re-import from scratch.) Once you've removed all imported content, you can then re-import your content from scratch.

Warnings: This can't be undone. Once you hit the button to delete all imported content, it can't be stopped. It will remove all imported content from your account, no matter how long ago you imported it. If you've deleted posts or comments on LJ since you first imported, they can't be re-imported into your account on Dreamwidth after you remove all imported content.

Reassurances: It will only touch imported content (with the exception of: If an entry was imported, and then someone commented on that entry on Dreamwidth, running this tool will delete that entry and all associated comments, including any comments that were made on Dreamwidth.) We've tested it pretty heavily (although there's always a chance for weird bugs).

If you want to use the tool to clean up your account, it's here.

EDIT: Also, I forgot to mention: if you're one of the people who were affected by the issue with the system telling you that your comments had imported successfully but the comments weren't appearing in your account, you can now try your import again, and it should work this time!

Comments

[sasha_feather]

YAY!!!

[cyprinella]

Can you specify which service to delete? I've got posts imported from Journalfen when that was still a possibility that I wouldn't want to go since we can't import from there any more.

[denise]

I'll have to double-check, but I don't think you can. (You might want to talk to Journalfen's admins -- the thing that is keeping us from re-enabling them as an import source is a really minor thing that they can fix, and one of our team members has given them the instructions, they just need to follow the steps!)

[rowrbazzle]

Thank you.

THANK YOU.

THANK YOU.

[wallflowerish]

Yay! Thank you!

[weber_dubois22]

Is this is a natural glitch that occurs during importing, or something LiveJournal does under the assumption that it's aware its users are moving information from their site to dreamwidth.org?

[denise]

It has to do with LJ having changed how they number and identify posts from their APIs and backend tools (so, affecting all tools that work with that particular data feed from LJ, not just us). It isn't conspiracy. :) (It's just frustrating because it doesn't seem to be consistent -- I'm actually guessing it's a bug, but it makes it really hard for us to work around it.)

[weber_dubois22]

Oh, okay. Thank you for that clarification [puts tinfoil hat away]

[msilverstar]

I'm having a hell of a time trying to import a community, is that even working right now? I know the livejournal password is right, because I can log in with it, but I keep getting errors.

[denise]

Yes, it should be working. If you tell me what the errors are, I can help out a little more. :)

[jordannamorgan]

Just so I'm perfectly clear on this: comments can be imported from LJ without problems now? I'm one of those who was able to import everything else recently, but comments didn't work, so that's what I've been waiting to hear a specific green-light on.

[denise]

The overall problem should have been fixed last week. If it's still not working for you, there's probably something messed up about the account you're trying to import or its comments, and it'll need individual troubleshooting -- the problem is, there are very few people who can do that troubleshooting (it's pretty much just Mark, and he is extremely, extremely overbooked). If you try to import comments again and it still doesn't work, open a support request, but please do understand that it will likely take quite some time for troubleshooting: there's a limit to the amount of our time we can spend in trying to diagnose and work around problems on the LJ end.

[jordannamorgan]

Thanks. I hadn't retried a comment import yet because I was waiting for a specific announcement on it (other than replies in the original thread about the problem). I guess I'll be attempting it now, so hopefully it will work as intended. *fingers crossed*

[cellio]

Thanks for the good news!

Has there been any progress on the failed import of comments from a week or so back? My profile claims 20k+ comments, but they didn't make it. I know you had a bug report about that (somebody, perhaps you, told me so) and that devs were working on a fix. Is the duplicate-import problem part of that, or are these unrelated?

I'll delete imported content and try again once I hear that comments should work, but I won't bang on your servers before then. (I've been on LJ for 11+ years. I've...got stuff.)

[denise]

The underlying cause of that should have been fixed last week, so try again. If it still doesn't work, you can open a new support request, but we really are getting to the point where I can't guarantee how long we can continue to spend this much of our time working around errors on LJ's end, so it may take some time to get back to you.

[astro_noms]

Yay! I've recently noticed a *ton of doubled entries, so this is very good news.

Is there a notification sent to us after the imported stuff's been removed? I realize there's probably a mile-long queue for it to be done, so I'm not expecting it right away, but I don't want to run the importer again and have the two processes end up conflicting.

[denise]

No, there isn't -- this is just a quick fix to let people clean up, not something that has a ton of bells and whistles and features. Just start it, wait a day or so, check your journal to confirm that imported content is deleted, and then import again.

[ozqueen]

I don't need this tool, but I'm stopping in to give you love, Dreamwidth ♥

[zarhooie]

In general, if there's been a comment by a staff-like person (either someone with a ton of Support points, or someone on the Staff page), but no official entry, it's probably because we're still working on the official version, but have it fixed in limited-release.

[zarhooie]

Dreamwidth <3's you too!

[sholio]

Oh YAYYYYY! Thank you! (And I had assumed that it was just me, because it seemed to be associated with renaming my account. In a weird way, it's a relief to know that my journal wasn't the only one it had happened to.)

[heresluck]

I love you guys.

[elfy]

Question:

If I once imported my LJ and all went fine, but went on posting there (LJ) without crossposting here ... what happens if I import my LJ again? Will I have everything twice except the most recent entries? Or will it sync just the new stuff?

[denise]

Theoretically and in an ideal world, it will just bring over things that are in your LJ that are not in your DW account. (If you'd used the crossposter to crosspost, it will take the comments from the LJ version of the entry and put them on the DW version of the entry. If there are entries in your LJ that aren't in your DW, it will bring the whole entry with its comments.)

In practice, LJ has been acting up lately and giving us funky data, which is why some people have ended up with duplicates, which is why we made the "remove all imported content and try again" override described in this post. :)

[denise]

Actually, renames-on-the-LJ-side may still be A Bit Funky. Unless we fixed that bug and I just don't remember us doing so! Which might also be the case. (Hey, I only run the place, I have no actual idea what the hell goes on around here half the time.)